Materials in Movies

Thank you, Virginia for providing this lik to The Reel Thing: One Editor's List of Great Material Moments in the Movies. I admit that I got a kick out of Flubber and Star Trek's transparent aluminum. As with any list, there must be quibbles about what was and was not on the list. The number 1 of the list, Theremin doesn't reach the threshold of materials goodness that I would want for a list such as this.

I do give kudos to the author for including The Graduate on the list. I have often referred to that line in describing Materials Science.

What should have been on the list, leaving aside thermodynamic concerns much the way Flubber does, is The Core. I might give the author a break in that the movie required more suspension of disbelief than a John Edwards (the medium, not the VP candidate) performance. The material that the deep-earth delving Daedalus was made of supposedly turned the ambient heat and pressure into energy for maintaining structural integrity was named Unobtainium. Too cool, even if laughable.